F1 ACADEMY: Pulling sweeps all three pole positions in Abu Dhabi

Abbi Pulling sealed all three pole positions on offer in Yas Marina, as the Alpine Academy junior continues her impressive run of form in her final F1 ACADEMY race weekend.

Adding to her total of seven poles from the season so far, Pulling is looking very strong ahead of the final three races of the year.

Pulling will line up alongside Chloe Chambers in the front row of the grid for all three races, with the Haas-backed driver looking very comfortable around the circuit after topping the first free practice session earlier today. Chambers will be keen to end her season with another victory, after achieving her maiden F1 ACADEMY win earlier this year in Barcelona.

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Hamda Al Qubaisi was rapid in front of her home crowd, and will start in third for both Race 1 and Race 2 in the Red Bull Racing-supported car. Doriane Pin had a tough session, with one of her best times deleted for a track limits violation, but will still line-up in third for Sunday’s third and final race of the season.

Once the session got the green light, McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante was the first to go for a push lap. A lock-up impacted her first attempt, something that was a frequent problem for drivers up and down the grid across the session, but she bounced back to go purple in all three sectors and 0.959s ahead of everyone else.

Soon, others caught up to Bustamante’s benchmark, including Pulling and Emely De Heus, with the latter putting in her best qualifying performance of the season, having never started higher than 11th on the grid. Pulling, also suffering with a lock-up on her first lap, soon went to the top of the timings with a 1m 56.439s.

Pin, on a different qualifying strategy to those at the top of the timesheets, finally headed out to get some banker laps in with 10 minutes left on the clock. The Mercedes-backed driver completed a quick lap to go second, but this was soon deleted for a track limits violation and meant the pressure was really on. She did eventually get in a lap to go fourth, but the results would be a very different story to her double-pole achievement last weekend in Lusail.

It looked to be a two-horse race for pole between Pulling and Chambers until Hamda Al Qubaisi leapt to the top of the times with two minutes left to go. Driving in front of her home fans, Al Qubaisi set a strong 1m 56.229s, but despite her best efforts wasn’t able to improve and settled for third at the chequered flag.

Pulling went even quicker on her final lap to end the session on top with a 1m 56.081s, with Chambers just 0.120s behind. They will lock out the front row for all three races, with Hamda Al Qubaisi guaranteed a second-row start for the same events.

Both Bustamante and Pin will start in the top five across all races, with Pin third for Race 3.

Emely De Heus secured her best result of the season to go sixth for Race 1, and will start ninth for Race 2 and 10th for Race 3. Ferrari’s Maya Weug will start from sixth for Race 2 and 3, whilst Nerea Martí and Lia Block qualified inside the top 10 for all three races.